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Ooops! No hostage situation here! Just a drill! Take down those pics, PD

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by TheSportsPredictor, Dec 15, 2008.

  1. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    At about 8:30 this morning, Cleveland.com (The Plain Dealer's website) posted a pic of SWAT team members outside a building at Notre Dame College in suburban Cleveland. The accompanying article said someone had shot a person and was holding other people hostage in a dorm.

    Then the article was gone.

    Now it turns out police were simply staging a drill and didn't tell anyone. Original article and pic scrubbed from the site.

    http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/police_use_notre_dame_college.html

    Ah, the immediacy of the web.
     
  2. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    We get a lot of emergency exercises at our airport.

    Whenever you hear freaky scanner traffic, the rule of thumb is: ALWAYS call the dispatchers first and see if it's legit.
     
  3. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Or check the school's online calendar:

    Monday, 12/15/2008 7:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. NDC & South Euclid Police Training Ad Building 2nd and 3rd Floor Mark Merims
     
  4. PeteyPirate

    PeteyPirate Guest

    Not even the people who work there are good enough any more.
     
  5. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Ace would not have made that mistake.
     
  6. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Hey, at least they didn't throw shoes at anyone.
     
  7. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    When does a threat stop becoming news?

    I know Oklahoma City and Sept 11th changed a lot of veiws, but I was taught that it is not news if nothing blows up, gun fired or person arrested.
     
  8. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    There was no threat. It was a drill.

    PD follow-up article on the site stated that the police did not tell anyone they were holding a drill. That turns out to be untrue as well, as it was posted on the college's online calendar and local residents received automated phone calls a week ago notifying them of the event.

    Now the part blaming police for not telling anyone ahead of time has also been scrubbed.
     
  9. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    So who died?
     
  10. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    So if there's a hostage standoff, but nobody fires a shot, it's not news until someone is arrested?

    I mean, in this case it's not news because it wasn't what the P-D thought it was. But had it actually been a hostage crisis, it's news, whether or not anybody was firing shots yet.
     
  11. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    "A man who has barricaded himself in his apartment has made no threats, does not appear to be armed and has taken no hostages. And no one seems to care." /georgecarlin
     
  12. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    With a hostage standoff with the confirmed criminals actively inside the building, there is a much greater case of an arrest or a violent act occurring.

    A bomb threat at a high school? Not so much.
     
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